My family loves pancakes for breakfast, brunch, and even sometimes as a substitute for dinner. They are, however, rather picky about their pancakes. Ordinary, everyday pancakes simply won’t do. They have to be lighter than air, fluffy, and perfectly cooked a light golden brown. I have to admit it’s a challenge to meet their high standards.
A few years back I discovered a wonderful recipe for “feather pancakes.” They fit the bill perfectly with regard to my family’s high standards. The problem was, of course, they took a lot of extra time to prepare.
Being a busy wife, mother, and grandmother I’m always looking for good, quality short cuts. For that reason, I have tried just about every frozen, packaged, and boxed pancake mix on the market today. Some are totally inedible while others are not at all bad. Unfortunately, my family wasn’t open to accepting any of those substitutions.
I had just about given up on any kind of pre-packaged pancake mix when I discovered Hungry Jack. It was the last brand I tried because the company’s name was better known for potatoes than for breakfast dishes. However, I have to say that they easily bested their competition by miles.
Hungry Jack makes a variety of boxed pancake mixes. These include original, buttermilk (in two versions), and light and fluffy (in two versions) as well as something that they call their Easy Pack. The Easy Pack also comes in buttermilk as well as blueberry.
The first box I tried was the original. Pre-boxed, the mix only requires that you add, milk, oil, and eggs. It’s pretty quick and simple. My family was even happy with the end result.
Next I tried the Hungry Jack buttermilk variety, which comes in two versions; one that requires milk, oil, and eggs and one that simply requires water. I tried the version that only required water because I wanted to see if there would a significant difference in taste from the mix that requires milk, oil, and eggs (like the original version). Oddly enough, there was absolutely no difference in taste.
Giving the mix my family’s “taste test,” it passed with flying colors, scoring even higher marks than the Hungry Jack original. Because they liked the buttermilk mix so well, I’ll admit that I didn’t try the extra light and fluffy version right away. In fact, I didn’t try it at all until I mistakenly picked up the wrong box at the grocery store.
The first time I made Hungry Jack’s Extra light and fluffy pancakes, my family went wild. They were certain that it was my old feather pancake recipe. It, of course, was not but even I had to admit that they were every bit as good, if not better, than any that I’d ever made. And it was the version that only required water; meaning it took only seconds to prepare.
We are now a very happy Hungry Jack family. I like that they no longer have to wait for me to be in the mood to mix up a batch of pancakes. They can do themselves, at any time, by just adding water. It only takes seconds.
I also love that Hungry Jack provides a recipe to turn their pancake mix into a an equally good waffle mix. That way I don’t have to prepare two separate batters for those who prefer Belgian waffles to dollar pancakes.
To polish off the perfect pancake Hungry Jack even provides the perfect syrup. It too comes in a variety of flavors including regular, butter, lite, and butter lite. My husband loves the butter variety while I’m all about all things “lite.”
My children like all of the syrup flavors so there is never an issue with them. Served hot or straight from the bottle, Hungry Jack syrup provides just the right hint of sweetness without masking the delicious taste of the pancakes or waffles.
Hungry Jack’s pancake mix is extremely versatile. In fact the company provides recipes for some of their customer’s favorite dishes. These include delectable fruit crepes, scrumptious bubble biscuits, and to die for pudding cake.
I doubt that I’ll ever make another pancake from scratch again. Why should I when Hungry Jack’s got me covered on all fronts. I love this product. It gets five out of five stars!
